Walking in Fire: Hawaiian Heroes, Book 1 (7 page)

“Well, you can leave anytime you want,” Frank said. “Leilani and I are stuck here with ’em.” He looked up at Malu. “Why
are
you here, exactly? Haven’t seen you working.”

“Just trying to get away from it all,” Malu said. “Thought it’d be peaceful out here, eh?”

Frank eyed him. “Uh-huh. Peaceful.”

“That’s right.” Malu tracked the progress of a white T-shirt and a brightly flowered sarong up the lawn and around the side lanai.

Gifford was headed up the mountain. Strange time for a hike. With a smoldering look over her shoulder, Cherie followed. Trying to make him jealous, no doubt. Too bad for her it wasn’t going to work. He was much more interested in Dane’s whereabouts than hers.

Or maybe she was after something else. In that case, he was interested in both her and Gifford. His shorts and sandals were wet, but he didn’t have time to change. His shirt was dark, so if he stayed back, he’d blend into the shadows.

When Melia turned from saying good night to Leilani, she saw Cherie look back, then disappear into the trees, and Malu stroll casually up the lawn. He stopped to pick up something pale from the ground and raised it to his nose as he stopped at the edge of the trees. Casting a swift look around, he disappeared after the redhead.

Melia’s stomach clenched, and she swallowed hard. So, he’d finally given in to Cherie’s moves. He was even bringing her a spray of fragrant plumeria blossoms. Who said men weren’t romantic anymore?

Jealousy rose in a hot, prickly tide. She turned and stalked into the house. Jealous of Malu? That was ridiculous. He’d only come on to her today to pester her.

She’d have a nice cool shower and then read the new romance novel she’d loaded onto her ebook reader before she left. She’d started it on the plane. Just the thing to relax her and help her forget about…certain people.

Showered and clad in a pair of tiny boxers and a tank, she curled up on the bed and checked her phone messages. There was a message from her mother, hoping she was having fun, and a text message from Claire.

Met any hawt H’n hunks?
She smiled wryly, made a mental note to call her mother soon and sent a text back to Claire.

2 hot 4 me. Want me 2 mail 2 u?
Comforted, she put on her headset with some of her favorite Brandi Carlile tunes.

The sketch lay on the bedside table. She picked it up and looked at it for a moment. What was it about the quick, flowing lines that was so appealing? It was because whoever had drawn it found the woman sexually attractive, she realized. The pose, all the lines conveyed sensuality.

She looked from the paper in her hands to the plumeria painting on the wall. Had they been done by the same person? She snorted. That was ridiculous; as if an artist that good was one of their group.

She put the sketch back on the table and stretched out on the bed with her e-reader.

But, as good as it was, she found she couldn’t get into the story. She kept seeing Malu, lounging on the boat with Jacquie plastered on him, her hands on his bare skin. Malu, leaping into the water to rescue the drunken woman. And Malu following Cherie into the trees. It wasn’t hard to imagine him taking the other woman in his arms.

She knew exactly how powerful those arms were, how good those big hands felt holding her. Knew how smooth that golden skin was, how firm those muscles were. Knew that up close, he had a faint beard shadow on his jaw and tiny creases at the corners of his eyes and mouth. Knew that he smelled of the sea and his own delicious scent, and that he gave off heat like a big electric blanket. She groaned in frustration. Too bad he was such a man-slut.

She closed her eyes, shifting in the soft sheets as desire built again. Finally, after reaching over to turn out the light, she lay back in the bed. As she smoothed her hands down over her breasts, her pebbled nipples grazed her palms. She slid one hand into her little boxers and cupped her mons. The needy ache intensified. With a bluesy anthem playing in her ears, she stroked her fingertips into her labia and played the wetness there up over the swollen bud of her clitoris. Catching her breath at the burst of sensation, she imagined Malu watching her, those dark eyes brooding and intense. She came hard and fast. With a deep sigh, she relaxed into the soft bed.

This time she dreamed that she stood in the moonlight, on the edge of the little cove next to Nawea. Malu walked toward her through the palm trees at the edge of the sand, his face grim, his steps long and purposeful. He wore the crown and the kappa-cloth breechcloth again, and he carried a wicked-looking club in his hands. A warrior.

He held one hand up, palm out, in a fierce warning to stay where she was. Then he turned and headed up across the lava, running now in long, athletic strides, into the trees.

He disappeared into the darkness as she called out to him, pleading with him to come back.

Melia woke, her heart pounding, to the sound of loud voices in the hallway.

“She’s gone!” a woman wailed. “Oh my God, where is she?” She? They weren’t talking about Malu. No, that had been a dream. This was real.

A man answered sharply, and the female voice lowered. Melia sat up, peering at her travel alarm. Three thirty a.m. Rubbing her eyes, she slid her feet off the bed. When something yanked painfully at her hair, she remembered the headphones and stopped to untangle them before she tugged a T-shirt over her tank and hurried out into the hallway.

The lights were on. Frank and Leilani stood in the doorway of the next room, both in pajamas. They looked worried.

“What’s wrong?” Melia asked, her voice husky with sleep.

“Cherie’s gone, that’s what’s wrong,” Jacquie cried from inside the other bedroom. “She hasn’t even slept in her bed.”

Melia froze as a scene flashed through her mind. Cherie disappearing into the trees and Malu looking back cautiously before following her. Oh God, while she’d been fantasizing about him, he’d been off boinking Cherie somewhere. She leaned against the wall, a sick curl of shame and anger twisting in her middle.

“What the hell’s going on?” demanded an irritable voice from the stairs. They all turned to see Dane stalking down the stairs, clad only in a pair of dark knit boxers.

“Your friend Cherie seems to be missing,” said Frank. “You know where she might be?”

Dane ran his fingers through his tousled hair. “Well, she’s not in my room. Jacquie, honey, quit that crying, could you? Jesus, I can’t think.”

“I know where she is,” Jacquie said tearfully. “She’s with M-Malu, that’s where.”

Frank and Leilani looked at each other. Then, unaccountably, they both glanced at Melia and away.

“I don’t know,” Frank said. “I don’t think so.”

“I…I think Jacquie’s right,” Melia forced herself to say. “I saw him follow her into the trees.”

“I’ll go check his room.” Frank headed up the stairs, and they heard a door open. Melia wrapped her arms around her middle, wishing this was a bad dream. Guilt quickly followed—she should be worried. Jacquie certainly was. But was she upset because her friend was missing, or because she might have beaten Jacquie into Malu’s bed?

Frank came down the stairs, his face grim. “He’s not there.”

Melia curled her fingers into her T-shirt, her nails biting into her palms even through the soft fabric. She focused desperately on the faces around her to dispel the image in her mind of the two somewhere in the dark, Malu moving over Cherie, his powerful body straining as she cried out in ecstasy. She felt chilled in spite of the warmth of the night.

“Well, I think we should all go back to bed,” Dane said, stretching. “Those two will show up when they’re ready.”

“I’m going to check the boat,” Frank said to Leilani, ignoring Dane. She nodded.

Dane raised his eyebrows. “What? No little cottage or beach shelter where they might be?”

Leilani shook her head. “This is wild country here. Only Kau forest preserve above us. No cottages, except—”

“No,” Frank cut in decisively. “Malu would take no one there. There’s nowhere else.”

Jacquie began to weep harder, and Melia walked into her room and sat on the bed beside the tousled brunette, who was clad only in a tiny nightie, her hair in a tangle. She patted the other woman on her back. Her worry seemed to be genuine.

“What if they fell in the ocean and got swept away?” Jacquie asked tearfully. “What if a bear attacked them?”

“Um, they don’t have bears here, sweetie.” Melia’s gaze met Leilani’s, and the other woman rolled her eyes heavenward.

Frank was back in a few moments. He shook his head.

Melia’s heart sank. She’d rather he found Malu and Cherie in a torrid tangle on the boat than…what? That they were just gone, into the dark Hawaiian night, with a wild rain forest above them and the open sea below? Or to the mysterious place Leilani had mentioned. Why wouldn’t he go there? Was it a religious site, like an ancient heiau?

It was still very warm outside, the air heavy and damp, so she supposed they could be somewhere with a beach towel, or something, but why wouldn’t they just be in one of the bedrooms? They were consenting adults.

“I’m going up the trail,” Frank said, brandishing a huge flashlight.

“Are you serious?” Dane asked. He shook his head with the air of someone holding on to patience. “It’s pretty clear Malu and Cherie are off somewhere, doing the wild thang.”

Frank gave him a look of disgust. “I don’t believe that. Your friend may have been hanging all over Malu, but he was not interested.”

Dane sighed. “All right, all right. We’ll help you look, then, since you’re so convinced they’re in trouble.”

He woke the twins, and the three men took flashlights and went to walk the shoreline. “I wish Keone was here,” Leilani said. “He knows Kau like the back of his hand.”

Frank snorted. “Well, you betta try calling him. Maybe he’ll answer his damn phone, maybe not.”

“We should call Daniel,” she said.

He shook his head. “He’s in Honolulu—they all are. Big show. Dunno why Malu didn’t go.” What kind of show? Melia wondered.

Frank left, and Leilani picked up her phone. But after listening, she frowned and then left a terse message to call her right away.

“Is Keone your friend that lives up the mountain?” Melia asked hesitantly. And who was Daniel?

Leilani nodded. “Mostly he’s a pain in my ass,” she muttered. “Thinks he’s so independent and tough. Men, you know?”

Melia nodded. Leilani left the room, and Melia sat with Jacquie, her thoughts outside in the dark, humid night. After several moments, Jacquie lay down again. Melia covered her with the sheet and brought her a glass of water.

When Jacquie closed her eyes, Melia followed Leilani into the kitchen, where the big pot of coffee was steaming quietly. Leilani handed her a cup, and they perched on bar stools at the island to drink it.

“Malu is a great guy,” Leilani said. “I agree with Frank. I don’t think he went with that wahine for
hana ai
. Maybe she’s hurt, and he’s waiting with her until daylight.”

She sounded as if she were trying to convince herself as much as Melia. Melia shrugged. “I just hope they’re safe.”

She looked cautiously at Leilani and saw a knowing look in the other woman’s gaze. Melia took a hasty sip of coffee and burned her tongue on the hot liquid.

“Hmm,” Leilani said. “Maybe I imagined the way you two look at each other.”

Melia took another gulp of coffee.

After a while, Leilani got down and went to the big refrigerator. “Well, might as well make breakfast,” she said. “I gotta do something but sit, yeah?”

Melia nodded, and Leilani came back to plunk a knife in front of her. She waved a hand at the huge basket of tropical fruit on the sideboard. “You wanna do the fruit?”

Melia chose a pineapple and brought it back to the island. Whack! The top fell off. Whack! The bottom fell.

Leilani turned and looked at her. A grin spread across her face. “Some big man betta watch out.”

Melia snickered. It felt good, a release valve for the tension compressed inside her. She was worried and scared and really, really angry at the whole situation. She wanted Malu to walk in safe and sound and say that he’d found Cherie, who’d simply gotten lost, or something. And that they had not been making hot hana ai in the woods all night.

Leilani began to crack eggs into a bowl. “The Ho’omalus are one of the oldest families on the island,” she said. “Descended from chieftains. Well respected here.”

“Ho’omalu?” Melia repeated, fascinated. “So that’s his last name?” She wasn’t sure why Leilani was volunteering information about Malu, but she was dying to hear it.

“Yup. David Ho’omalu.” Leilani looked over at Melia, that knowing little smile on her lips. “He’s an artist. He painted those pictures you like so much.”

Melia knew her mouth was hanging open, but for a moment, she could only stare at Leilani. “
Malu
painted those?”

Leilani nodded. “Been drawing in his sketch books since he was a keiki. Went off to college, played football for the Rainbow Warriors. Got a degree and a job with one of da family businesses. Surprised everyone when he quit to paint. Everyone except his
ohana
—his family.”